Making Him Notice
by evieeden
Summary: This year was Jessica's year. Now all she had to do was get him to notice that. Advent story written for 7th December.


**Happy 7****th**** December everyone. I hope you enjoy today's offering. It should be something a bit more light-hearted before all the angst to come *cackles*.**

**Big thanks go once more to my beta for this, idealskeptic, who helps me get my American sports in order when I would just say anything. As always, I don't own anything to do with Twilight.**

**Making Him Notice**

This was, like, the most annoying thing ever.

This was the year that was supposed to be my year.

I was a junior, my mom had finally blackmailed my dad into buying me a car, and over the summer I had finally grown – three inches in height and two cup sizes in bras. Thank God I wasn't flat-chested anymore. If I hadn't grown this year then I would definitely have gotten my parents to pay for a boob job on mental health grounds or something.

Lauren and I were now the hottest girls in school. Well, the hottest juniors anyway. If Rosalie Hale hadn't gone to our school then we would definitely have had no competition from the rest of the seniors. Alice Cullen was pretty too, I guess, in a weird hippy way, but there was something freaky about her and her boyfriend. Unlike the rest of their family, they were just too scary to be cute.

So here I was, great boobs, great hair, and great new wardrobe courtesy of my mom. Everything was going my way, working out exactly as it should.

This was going to be the year that Mike Newton finally noticed me.

Really, I had hoped that it would happen last year, but Amanda Simmons had been a senior back then. She had been head cheerleader and the valedictorian. Apart from Rosalie, she had been the prettiest girl in school. Six foot tall with long legs and a huge rack (which Lauren said was fake); she had moved to Los Angeles last Fall to become an actress. All the boys had been totally in love with her before she left, including Mike.

This year, however, there were no distractions like Amanda to keep Mike from noticing me.

So all this winter, I had made the extra effort, dressing up nice, making sure my hair and nails were immaculate, and being sure to laugh at all of Mike's jokes. If I'm totally honest, some of them were kind of lame, but he was sweet, so I could ignore that part.

He had grown up pretty fine in the last year though. He had actually started styling his hair and dressing better, and the last of his teenage acne had finally cleared up. His clothes had got a little tighter too, revealing muscle definition that hadn't been there before the summer.

After wearing a particularly low-cut dress to Tyler's Christmas party last year, I was sure that I had finally caught his attention. But then nothing happened in the New Year. It was like he'd completely forgotten that I existed, too caught up in baseball training. Still, I was hopeful that once he was less busy, he'd consider asking me out. Naturally, I had too much pride to ask him.

Or at least I was waiting until the girl's choice dance for that so that I wouldn't look slutty.

And then Bella Swan moved back to town.

To tell you the truth, I was a little intimidated by her at first. She was just so laid back, like she didn't care what people thought of her or something. She was nice too. I kind of thought she might be a bit of a goody-two-shoes at first - I mean, her dad was chief of police –but she didn't seem like she was the type to rat us all out to her old man or something.

I had sat next to her in English and helped her find her way around in her morning classes. Eric had tried to make himself her guide for the day, but you could tell even after just a few hours that she wasn't interested and that he was barking up the wrong tree.

She was in algebra with Angela and me though and afterwards she came and sat with us at our lunch table.

Really, she was quite nice when you got to know her. I mean, she had a weird sense of humour. Like, she would make a joke, but you couldn't really tell whether it was actually a joke or not. She was a bit quieter than the rest of us too, but I just figured that was because it was her first day and she didn't really know us yet.

Once everyone had finally grabbed their lunch and sat down at our table, we introduced her to everyone. I wasn't sure that she actually remembered all of our names, but if she was going to be eating with us then she'd get to know us all eventually.

They boys perked up when they were introduced and I rolled my eyes when Tyler had leaned forward and grinned flirtatiously at her.

"Hey there, Isabella."

"Umm, it's just Bella," she corrected.

Seriously, I had just introduced her to him as Bella and he couldn't get her name right? But then, Tyler wasn't exactly the smartest.

"Bella then," he said. He did this look which I think was supposed to be sexy, but he just ended up looking constipated.

Across the table, I saw Lauren grit her teeth.

She should know better really. Tyler had always been a total horndog.

Just a month ago at a party held over at Samantha's, he had been caught making out with some freshman in the kitchen. It wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't just finished having sex with Lauren in Samantha's parents' bedroom. Lauren was furious. I think the other girl had needed surgery to repair her nose afterwards and Tyler had been walking funny for a week.

Still, for some reason Lauren liked him, and it looked like she was going to blame Bella for Tyler's interest in her which was just really stupid.

I wasn't feeling so happy a minute later though when Mike introduced himself to the new girl with a wink.

I couldn't believe him!

I liked him. I was sure that I had made that clear.

Taking a step back mentally to think about it, I stared at Bella, trying not to frown at her.

She was okay looking, I supposed. She was kind of like Angela. I had no doubt that she could be really pretty if she tried, but judging her outfit and the fact that she wasn't wearing any make-up, I figured that looks weren't really her thing.

Luckily, she treated Mike exactly the same way that she had treated Tyler, Eric and all the other boys at the table, with complete indifference.

The only time she did perk up and look vaguely interested in any of the boys in school was when the Cullens arrived in their usual dramatic form and sat at their table. Even I could tell her that she was wasting her time there. The Cullens didn't talk to anyone and out of all of them, Edward, the only single one, was super unfriendly.

After spending some more time with her, however, I was reassured.

Despite the fact that Edward Cullen had acted like a creepy psycho in her Biology class on her first day, she still seemed pretty curious about him, and not at all interested in Mike. In fact, she had been sweet enough to reassure me that she had no interest in him whatsoever.

Now, I just needed Mike to realise that.

I thought he was finally coming around too.

He began treating Bella just like everyone else we hung out with and when we all met up at the diner one night, he flirted with me and didn't pay attention to anyone else. Of course, I wasn't really sure whether he appreciated me or my new Wonderbra more, but he had noticed me and hopefully, was finally beginning to see me as potential girlfriend material, rather than just as the kid he had grown up with.

Then we all went to La Push for the weekend.

The girl's choice dance was in three weeks' time and I was kind of hoping that Mike and I would already be dating at this point so that us going together was a given. I was working up my nerve to ask him at the beach while we were sat together at the bonfire, when he suddenly bolted upright and started looking around.

I paused mid-sentence, when he barked out.

"Hey. Where did Bella go?"

My mouth slammed shut with a click.

_Seriously?_ I had been talking to him and all he could think about that whole time was where Bella Swan had run off to?

On the other side of the bonfire, Lauren raised her eyebrows mockingly at me. I scowled back at her. She had made a point a few days back of telling me that I needed to keep an eye on Bella, that she was out to get the attention of all the boys in our year, whether they had girlfriends or not. At the time, I had told her that she was being stupid. Bella wasn't that kind of girl, and I didn't really think she had the backbone to try and steal someone else's man.

Now, I was having a hard time remembering that.

To my relief, and surprise, we eventually found her halfway down the beach batting her eyelashes at one of the kids from the reservation. I found that weird, especially since she had been eating lunch with Edward for the last week, but hey, to each their own. I wasn't about to judge. Besides, the kid she was talking to – Jacob, I thought his name was – was kind of cute in a puppyish way.

Hopefully, the sight of Bella with not just one, but two other guys would curb Mike's crush on her once and for all. I kind of thought half the appeal for him anyway was that she was still the new girl and hadn't yet actually dated any of the other boys in school. For some reason, they were always fascinated by the shiny, new toy.

Lauren said it was because Bella Swan practically screamed 'virgin' and no guy wanted to know that he was getting one of his friends' sloppy seconds. Personally, I thought that was mean, especially because Bella didn't seem like the kind of girl who would spread it around like that. As much as I loved Lauren, she was a bit of a hypocrite.

Still, that night I went home and seriously thought about whether or not I really wanted this.

Surely, Mike's obsession with where Bella was and what Bella was doing meant that he wasn't interested in me. I should probably just give up on him and ask someone else to the dance. Connor wasn't seeing anyone at the moment and he and I were friends. We could probably have a pretty good time if we went together. Maybe we could all go as a group instead. I mean, Lauren would probably still want Tyler there as her official date, but no-one else was paired off yet as far as I knew so it could work.

On the other hand though, this was what I had wanted for the last year and a half. Surely I shouldn't give up now?

Before today I had been sure that I was finally making headway with Mike.

We had been talking more, just the two of us, and when we had gone up to the shop at the reservation earlier for supplies, he had grabbed my hand and swung it between us. Didn't that mean something?

Taking a deep breath, I made my decision.

On Monday, I would make my move.

I was going to fix my hair and nails, wear my cutest outfit that showed off all my assets and ask Mike to go to the dance with me.

Having made my decision, I slept well that night and the next day was spent catching up on my homework and daydreaming about what I was going to wear to the dance. I foresaw a trip to Port Angeles in the near future to find a decent dress before everyone else headed for the department store too.

Monday morning I sat in the parking lot waiting for Mike to arrive. I had butterflies in my stomach and my hands were shaking. I had to check twice after applying lipstick to make sure I hadn't got any on my teeth with how unsteady my fingers were.

Finally, Mike arrived and I swung out of my car and hurried over to him before anyone else could join him and make this ten times more awkward than it had to be.

"Hi Mike," I greeted him breathlessly, offering a wide smile.

To my relief, he grinned back at me. "Hey Jess. Did you do the English homework yet?"

My smile fell a little. This was not how I wanted to start the conversation, talking about homework.

"Er, yeah, I wrote my paper yesterday."

He grunted in acknowledgement and started rummaging in his bag, heading towards the school.

This was not working out. I needed to move faster otherwise the opportunity would be gone and we would be surrounded by everyone else in no time.

"So, Mike," I began casually. "I was thinking the other day about the dance and about how much time we've all spent together lately, and I thought it might be cool if we went together." That was good, I decided. I didn't sound desperate or anything, just... casual.

"Oh." Mike stopped walking and I skidded to a halt next to him. He looked confused.

This was not going the way I was hoping.

He hadn't said yes immediately. More importantly, he wouldn't meet my eyes so I didn't think he was going to yes in a minute either. My heart sank.

I should've listened to my intuition on Saturday. It knew that he wasn't interested like that, but I'd let myself hope and now I was going to get shot down in front of the whole school. Everyone knew Bella Swan could blush, but I swear she had nothing on me right now.

"Listen, Jess, I..." He paused and for some reason it seemed worse that he was trying to be nice about turning me down. At that moment I would've much rather he just laughed in my face and told me to get lost.

"Can I get back to you about the dance?" he asked, offering me a hopeful smile.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to slap him across the face and then kick him in the balls. I wanted to not know that his stupid smile was because he was still hoping that someone else would ask him to the dance.

His first choice – Bella.

It took all my will-power not to start screaming in the middle of the lot.

_How could he be so stupid?!_ Everyone knew that Bella wasn't into him. She was totally into Edward and vice versa. Mike had about as much a chance as Mrs Cope of dating her.

I knew this, and yet a tiny voice at the back of my head whispered that maybe Bella did like Mike. Surely, he couldn't be that oblivious to her feelings unless she'd given him some hint that she might want to date him.

I felt tears begin to well in my eyes. God, how embarrassing would crying in front of Mike be?

Painting a fake smile onto my face, I beamed at Mike. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing me upset because of him.

"Sure thing," I chirped. "Let me know."

Spinning on my heel, I stalked off towards English, remembering too late that I shared this class with Bella.

She greeted me with a smile, but I couldn't bring myself to talk to her much. A part of me still wondered if she'd encouraged Mike's attention. I mean, she had half the guys in school panting over her, _including_ Edward Cullen, and he had never panted after anyone _ever_ before. Why she needed Mike to have a crush on her as well, I didn't know.

Class was nearly over when she nudged me.

"Jess, are you okay?" she asked. "You've been really quiet."

I couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Are you planning on asking Mike to the dance?" I blurted out.

"What? No." He face went from shocked to kind of repulsed.

"Oh. I thought you might be planning to." I tried not to look bothered as I explained. "I asked him and he said he would have to think about it. So then I wondered if he was expecting another invitation, like from you."

"No." She shook her head. "I'm not even going to the dance."

"You're not?" I didn't get it. "Why not?"

She shifted uncomfortably on her seat. "You've seen me walk, right? Can you imagine me dancing?"

It was a lame attempt at a joke, but I appreciated it anyway.

"I'm actually going up to Seattle that weekend," she continued. "I've got a shopping trip planned."

I was immediately jealous. I would've loved to go to Seattle to pick out a dress for the dance. At the same time, a petty part of me was quite glad that Bella was going to be as far away as possible that weekend.

"That sounds cool," I told her and I meant it.

I tried to carry on like normal for the rest of the day, but it was hard. I wanted to hate Bella, but she hadn't done anything to deserve it. I wanted to hate Lauren and Angela too when they showed up at lunch, both having got dates for the dance in the morning. It was so frustrating. It was working out for everyone else, why couldn't it work for me?

By the end of the day, I was fed up and miserable. I just wanted to get home as soon as possible now so I could throw on my ugliest sweatpants, get rid of all my make-up and crash in front of Lifetime with a pint of ice-cream.

I had just made it to my car when I heard a familiar voice calling out my name.

"Jess! Hey Jess! Wait up."

The temptation to jump in my car and speed away was building.

"Hey Jess!" Mike finally caught up with me and grabbed my elbow. "Hey! Didn't you hear me calling?"

"Sorry." I pulled an apologetic face that any idiot could tell was fake. "I was daydreaming."

"About our date, I hope." He smiled at me.

My heart skipped a beat. "What?" I gaped at him.

"The dance," he explained. "I'm sorry I didn't say yes earlier. I don't know where my head was at." He grinned cheesily. "Maybe it was too early in the morning."

I smiled weakly back at him.

"But anyway, I thought about what you said and I think we'd have a really good time together at the dance, so if you still want me to go with you," he shrugged, "I'm all yours."

I wanted to be angry with him, wanted to be upset. He still hadn't really explained why he hadn't said yes to me when I first asked.

But he wanted to go to the dance with me. No matter what he thought his other options were, he was now here practically begging me to take him back.

Mike Newton finally wanted me. Mike Newton had finally noticed me.

I was finally good enough.

Excitement threatened to burst out of my chest in hysterical giggles.

I forced myself to sound nonchalant though. It wouldn't do to make him feel too comfortable after what he had put me through today.

"Sure, I guess."

He nodded eagerly and I bit my lip to keep from laughing at his new enthusiasm.

"We can sort out the details tomorrow if you like? I need to get back before my mom worries."

"Sure," he agreed quickly. "We'll arrange everything tomorrow."

He waved as I drove off and I thought that my absent nod back was so classy.

I made it about a mile home before I started laughing with happiness. I was going on a date with Mike Newton, just like I had been dreaming about since I was fifteen. Grinning like an idiot, I mentally high-fived myself.

This was the best day ever!


End file.
